Night Shift is the diary of Fighting Owl Film's new independent supernatural-adventure-comedy of the same name currently in distribution in Mobile, AL. Over the course of the next several weeks and months, you'll get an insider's peek at what it's like for filmmakers to craft a new entry of paranormal pop culture from Erin Lilley, a producer and actress on the film.

It's out!

Last night, Thomas and I toasted the DVD release of The Night Shift. This morning, I got up early and made a quart of fake blood. To borrow a line from a very appropriate Disney song, it's the circle of life, folks.

To be fair, the fake blood wasn't actually for filming. My kid brother's middle school is putting on a haunted house this weekend, so this was for him. Still, it was good practice for the fake blood I get to make next week for the filming of our Jersey Devil promo video. This is the trailer-esque short that we'll show potential backers/producers who might be interested in funding our next feature. It won't be a long video, but it's definitely not a small undertaking. We've cast five talented actors (and me), and, furthering the circle, I guess, they're having their costume fittings the same day that our Night Shift actors are scheduled to pick up their copies of the film. There's something poetic about that; just as we finish one chapter, we begin another. Poetic, or possibly, just insane. Anyway, we've also created a temporary logo for the film, scouted locations, figured out the lighting design, and even composed a song for the promo. As my brother would say, this thing is "beast". I think that means awesome.

The Night Shift may be released, but it's far from forgotten. Thomas and I have spent our free time (ha!) tracking down retailers and updating the social networking sites with stats, like where the movie's available, where it's sold out or about to sell out, and rankings on different sites' Top Sellers lists. I have to say, one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life was The Night Shift at number seven on the Buy.Com Top 100 Pre-Orders, just two or three rungs below Harry Potter. Seriously, and I'm not ashamed to admit this, I got a little misty eyed. I actually took a picture of the screen when I saw we were close to selling out; less for posterity, and more for proof, I think. It just didn't seem possible.

These past couple of weeks have been like a Disney fairy tale for Fighting Owl Films. We never dreamed that we'd see The Night Shift on a bestseller list, much less on a few of them. We've watched the movie bounce back and forth between "sold out" and "back in stock", seen our poster on MovieFone, read a recommendation for it on Topless Robot, and even found an IMDb list saying that some anonymous, wonderful person had us in their top ten Scary Movies I Can't Wait To See. As I wrote this paragraph, Thomas emailed to tell me that our representative is sending the movie to the American Film Market to try to secure international distribution. About the only thing missing, right now, are some animated characters...

...Oh, wait. As if things weren't already magical enough, ridiculously talented artist (and lovely human being), Jon Pinto, has taken it upon himself to render Rue, Herb, and Claire as toons, just because he thought what we were doing was cool. I don't have words to describe how touched I am over his generosity. Jon has worked with Disney, Universal, Six Flags, and many other impressive establishments, and I've personally been a fan of his Doctor Who artwork (and everything else, to be honest) since I first ran across a piece of his several months ago. Again, a little misty eyed. The piece isn't finished quite yet, but you can check out the in-progress work at his website. I highly recommend checking out his entire gallery while you're there. It's absolutely amazing.

Right now, we're in this hazy, gray area between the lovely dream that has been The Night Shift, and the slightly scary unknown that is Jersey Devil Expeditions. It's time to come out of this loop, hold on tight, maybe scream a little, and zoom on into the next.

Follow The Night Shift at www.thenightshiftmovie.com. You can check out the poster, trailer, cast and crew, and some fun downloads. Heck, if you like, you can even be our friend on Facebook and Twitter (@NightShiftMovie), where you can follow more of the progress of the movie.